The present invention relates generally to power line networking techniques for industrial applications. More particularly, the invention provides a method and system for a high speed power line network in an industrial environment such as manufacturing of electronic devices, mechanical devices, chemical/petrochemical, and petroleum products. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied in a local area network environment, but it would be recognized that other applications exist.
Telecommunication techniques have been around for numerous years. In the early days, a communication technique known as telegraph was developed. Telegraph generally transferred information from one geographical location to another geographical location using electrical signals in the form of “dots” and “dashes” over transmission lines. An example of commonly used electrical signals is Morse code. Telegraph has been, for the most part, replaced by telephone. The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1800s to transmit and send voice information using electrical analog signals over a telephone line, or more commonly a single twisted pair copper line. Most industrialized countries today rely heavily upon telephone to facilitate communication between businesses and people, in general.
In the 1990s, another significant development in the telecommunication industry occurred. People began communicating to each other by way of computers, which are coupled to the telephone lines or telephone network or other communication network. These computers or workstations coupled to each other can transmit many types of information from one geographical location to another geographical location. In general, there has been various types of computer networks, including local area networks, commonly called LANs, and wide are networks, commonly called WANs.
Computer networks have been useful on monitoring and controlling equipment used for the manufacture of products. These products range in variety from automobiles, electronic devices, textiles, and other materials. These materials can include chemicals, petrochemicals, and petroleum products. Although somewhat successful, many limitations still exist with the use of computer networks in a manufacturing environment.
As merely an example, manufacturing environments are often “noisy” and full of things that lead to interference of telecommunication signals That is, high frequency noise often interferes with conventional computer networks and/or control systems. The high frequency noise is often derived from a wide variety of manufacturing equipment, such as high voltage generators, mechanical stamping devices, and the like. Additionally, manufacturing environments are also “dirty” and have particulate contamination, grime, and other substances that lead to failure of high precision electronic devices. High precision electronic devices often have reliability failures in such environments. These and other limitations are described throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
From the above, it is seen that improved techniques for power line networks are highly desired.